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Lovi-t-^^ UjvvX»-~>»/ h!-\^^,U.v. 
The Mexican Question. 

THE ARTICLE BT PRESIDENT WILSON REPRINTED HERE AP- 
PEARED IN THE ISSUE OF THE LADIES' HOME JOURNAL FOR 
OCTOBER, 1916. 

Large questions are difficult to state in brief compass, 
but thej' can be intelligently comprehended only ■when 
fully stated, and must to all candid persons seem worthj' 
of the pains. The Mexican question has never anj'- 
where been fulh' stated, so far as I know, and yet it is 
one which is in need of all the light that can be thrown 
upon it, and can be intelligently discussed only by those 
who clearly see all that is involved. 

In the first j)lace, it is not a question which can be 
treated by itself as only a matter between Mexico and 
t^ie United States. It is a part, a very intimate part, 
_^f the Pan-American question. The two Americas can 
be knitted together only by processes of peace, friendship, 
helpfulness, and good will, and the nation which must 
of necessity take the initiative in proving the possibility 
of these processes is the United States. 

A discussion of tlie Pan- American question must al- 
ways begin with the Monroe Doctrine, and very little 
light will be thrown upon it unless we consider the Hklon- 
roe Doctrine from the point of view of Latin-America 
rather than from the point of view of the United States. 

In adopting the Monroe Doctrine the United States 
assumed the part of Big Brother to the rest of America. 
The primary purpose of the policy was to prevent the 
extension to the American Hemisphere of European in- 
fluences, which seemed likely to involve South America 
and eventually ourselves as well in the net of European 
intrigue and reaction which was in that day being 
spread with so wide a swee^j of purpose. But it was 
not adopted at the request of the American republics. 
While it no doubt made them measurably fi-ee from the 
fear of European aggression or intervention in their af- 
fairs, it neither gave nor implied any guarantee on the 
part of the United States that we would use our power 
for their benefit and not for our own aggrandizement 
and advantage. 

As the power of the United States has increased, the 
uneasiness of the Latin- American republics has increased 
with regard to the use we might make of that power in 
dealing with them. 

Unfortunately we gave one very disquieting example 
of what we might do when we went to war with Mexico 
in Mr. Polk's time and got out of that war a gi-eat addi- 
tion to our national territory. 

The suspicion of our southern neighbors, their un- 
easiness as to our growing power, their jealousy that 
we should assume to play Big Brother to them without 
G69G1— ic „ _ 






their invitation to do so, has constantly stood in the way 
of the amicable and happy relations we wished to estab- 
lish with them. Only in very recent years have they 
extended their hands to ns with anything like cordiality, 
and it is not likely that we shall ever have their entire 
confidence until we have succeeded in giving them satis- 
factory and conclusive proofs of our own friendly and 
imselfish purpose. 

"\'\niat is needed for the firm establishment of their 
faith in us is that we should give guaranties of some 
sort, in conduct as well as in promise, that we will as 
scrupuously respect their territorial integritj^ and their 
political sovereignty as we insist that European nations 
should respect them. 

If we should intervene in Mexico, we would undoubt- 
edl}' I'evive the gravest suspicions throughout all the 
states of America. By intervention I mean the use of the 
power of the United States to establish internal order 
there without the invitation of Mexico and determine 
the character and method of her political institutions. 
We have professed to believe that every nation, every 
people, has the right to order its own institutions as it 
will, and we must live up to that profession in our ac- 
tions in absolute good faith. 

Moreover, " order " has been purchased in Mexico at 
a terrible cost when it has been obtained by foreign assist- 
ance. The foreign assistance has generally come in the 
form of financial aid. That financial aid has almost in- 
variably been conditioned upon " concessions " which 
have put the greater part of the resources of the country 
which have as yet been developed in the hands of foreign 
capitalists, and by the same token under the " protec- 
tion " of foreign gOA'ei-nments. 

Those who have successfully maintained stable order 
in Mexico by such means have, like Diaz, found that they 
were the servants, not of Mexico, but of foreign conces- 
sioiratres. 

The economic development of Mexico has so far been 
accomplished by such " concessions " and by the exploita- 
tion of the fertile lands of the republic by a very small 
number of owners who haA'e accumulated under one title 
hundreds of thousands of aci-es, swept within one owner- 
ship the greater part of states, and reduced the popula- 
tion of the country to a sort of peonage. 

Mexico is one of the treasure houses of the world. It 
is exceedingly to be desired by those who wish to amass 
fortunes. Its resources are indeed serviceable to the 
whole world and are needed by the industries of the 
whole world. No enterprising capitalist can look upon 
her without coveting her. The foreign diplomacy with 
which .she has become bitterly familiar is the "dollar 
diplomacy," which has almost invariably obliged her to 
give precedence to foreign interests over her own. What 
she needs more than anything else is financial support 
which will not involve the sale of her liberties and the 
enslavement of her people. 

Property owned by foreigners, enterprises conducted 
bv fo eiffners. will never be safe in Mexico so long as 



their existence and the method of their use and conduct 
J excite the suspicion and, upon occasion, the hatred of 

^ the people of the country itself. 

I would not be understood as saying that all or even 
the majority of the foreigners who have owned property 
in Mexico or who have developed her extraordinary 
resources have acted in a way to excite the jealousy or 
deserve the dislike of the people of the country. It is 
fortunately true that there have been a great many 
who acted with the same honor and public spirit there 
that characterized them at home, and whose wish it has 
never been to exploit the country to its own hurt and 
detriment. 

I am speaking of a system and not uttering an indict- 
ment. The system by which Mexico has been financially 
assisted has in the past generally bound her hand and 
foot and left her in effect without a free government. 
It has almost in every instance deprived her people of 
the part they were entitled to play in the determination 
of their own destiny and development. 

This is what every leader in Mexico has to fear, and 
the historj" of Mexico's dealings with the United States 
can not be said to be reassuring. 

It goes without saying that the United States must do 
as she is doing — she must insist upon the safetj' of her 
borders ; she must, so fast as order is worked out of chaos, 
use every insti'umentality she can in friendship employ 
to protect the lives and the ijroperty of her citizens in 
Mexico. 

But she can establish permanent peace on her borders 
only by a x'esolute and consistent adoption in action of 
the principles which underlie her own life. She must 
respect the liberties and the self-government of INIexi- 
cans as she would respect her own. She has professed 
to be the champion of the rights of small and helpless 
states, and she must make that profession good in what 
she does. She has professed to be the friend of Mexico, 
and she must prove it by seeing to it that every step she 
takes is a step of friendship and helpfulness. 

Our own principles and the peace of the world are 
conditioned upon the exemplification of those professions 
in action by ourselves and by all the nations of the world, 
and our dealings with Mexico afford us an opportunity 
to show the way. 

Mexico must no doubt struggle through long processes 
of blood and terror before she finds herself and returns 
to the paths of peace and order ; but other nations, older 
in political experience than she, have staggered and 
struggled through these dark ways for years together to 
find themselves at last, to come out into the light, to know 
the price of liberty, to realize the compulsion of peace, 
and the orderly processes of law. 

It is painful to observe how few of the suggestions as 
to what the United States ought to do with regard to 
Mexico are based upon sympathy with the Mexican peo- 
ple or anj' effort even to understand what they need and 
desire. I can say with knowledge that most of the sug- 
gestions of action come from those who wish to possess 



her, who wish to use her, who regard her people with 
condescension and a touch of contempt, who believe that 
they are fit only to serve and not fit for liberty of any 
sort. Such men can not and will not determine the 
policy of the United States. They are not of the true 
American breed or motive. 

America will honor herself and prove the validity of 
her own principles by treating Mexico as she would wish 
Mexico to treat her. 














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